Microbiome Science

Introduction

What is human about the human microbiome? How do the members of the microbial communities that makeup the human microbiome differ from those of our close relatives, those of other animals,those that are not host associated?

What does it take for a methanogenic archaeon or an anaerobic fermentative bacterium to adapt to life in the human gut? How has human adaptation to new lifestyles and diets, including those that have impacted host genetic variation, shaped the microbiome and its interactions with the host?

How do these adaptations relate to health in our modern environments? These are some of the questions that we address in the Department of Microbiome Science.